Renegade Abyssal Game
Summary This is an IRC game held in the #Exalted channel on Tuesdays, around 18 GMT+1. It is a game of renegade Abyssals. Theme It started out as a mostly-serious Abyssal game by a newbie ST, then transmogrified into Romantic Comedy with Occasional Murder. After that, it went back to being a mostly-serious Abyssal game, with a slightly more experienced ST. Then the faffery struck, turning the game into a drama-laden internal conflict zone with a side order of extreme faffery. Player Characters House-Clearing Harrower: Dusk Caste, played by Erik Mesoy (image, courtesy of CoH) * Likes to brag and smash things. Scarlet Scream That Ushers In Unending Silence: Midnight Caste, played by JammyBoo32 * Emotionally stunted, thick accent. * Killed by a giant crab. Walker of Lost Ways: Daybreak Caste, played by RustyTheBrave * Hates the Realm for cutting his funding. * How long does a Conviction 4 last being in horrible torment without breaking? Stalker of Angry Hearts: Day Caste, played by Serah (image, courtesy of Serah) * Amnesiac, who appears to be confused about the nature of the world. Though literate, she knows almost nothing about the world, save that imparted upon her by the other partymembers. She is somehow acquainted with Warped Mirrors Shattered, though it remains a mystery how. She has a special suit of armour that allows her to become any human, ever, and uses it frequently to make up mocking disguises like clones of her comrades. Her chosen weapon is the Soul Mirror, which eats souls of those it slays to boost the power of the artifact immensely. While appearing to be of normal consitution for a human woman, she can use her dark energies to suffuse herself with eldritch power, thereby increasing her strength. For reasons known only to her, she uses girly names for males, and male names for females, apparently at random - this may be tied to her amnesia, perhaps being unable to remember the names of those she is in contact with. She has nothing against Harrower, really, it's just her. The Lonely Prophet Whose Name Is Too Long: Daybreak Caste, played by Attilla * Knows things, philosophizes, seeks to understand Oblivion. * Missing, last seen in a Denandsor library. The Feral Maze: Eclipse Caste, played by EvilDarkLord * Diplomat and assassin, seeks Solarity. Scarlet Dust Fox, played by xp194 (image, courtesy of Champions Online) * Lunar Full Moon Caste, mate of Maze Malevolent Apostle Dreaming Broken Dreams: Daybreak Caste, played by Quod. (image, courtesy of CO?) * Charismatic Necromancer with a complex about his former servetude to the Deathlords. Has his own goals for his life that he will do almost anything to complete. Carrying his massive GrimScythe he sarcastically wanders through live with a slightly morbid sense of humor and an understanding of how people work. Due to his aristocratic upbringing, he enjoys the finer things in life, despite the fact that the renegade lifestyle doesn't offer them very often. * Struck down by Dragon-Blooded in Gem. Herrick: Daybreak Caste, played by Quod. *After being killed while on a mission, a young mercenary found himself given a choice to live again. When he awoke he had the memories of a former Exalted, Apostle, who told him to run and hide from the one who brought him back, giving him directions to a safe place. The son of the head of a Solar cult, and former soldier with a love for stories of the lords his father worshiped, he never expected to be Exalted himself. Though bitter memories of his fathers execution by the dragon-bloods still cause his anger to rise. * Slain by a tribe of nomads in the South. Foe Whitebeard: Full Moon played by Quod. * A bear thing. * Slain by a possessed Stalker outside of Nexus. See also: /Relationship Chart/ Non Player Characters Important people the PCs met or heard about. * Ezekiel, Mortal, acquaintance of Walker's from Thorns. Probably still in Celeren. * Grandfather to Slaughter, Dusk caste, dead. An old fisherman from a village the party destroyed. Twice slain. * Warped Mirrors Shattered, Midnight caste. Stalker's sister. Last seen dissolving into vapour in Feathers' nega-castle in the Underworld. * The Thaumaturge, Enlightened Mortal. Has a blacksmithing shop in Nexus. Agreed to find an artifact shield for Harrower. * Tallest Oak, ostensibly Heroic Mortal. Octogenarian at least, claims to be a greatly traveled adventurer. * Red Blossom, Mortal. Tallest Oak's visibly younger wife. Does not like the party. * ???, unknown. Alive, but what life is that? * Orgiastic Fugitive, water-aspect DB. Dead, but went out doing what he loved! * Mysterious Employer, Mortal. Dead. Hired the party to eradicate as many Fair Folk as they can. Killed by Stalker. Twice. * Swordsman on the Pyramid, Fair Folk Cataphract. Extant. Last seen in the near southeast. * ???, Mortal Guild Bureaucrat. Alive. Was about to hire the party. * 'Lavos', Fire-aspected DB. Bisected. Died dueling Stalker. * ???, Chosen of Battles. Reduced to kibble by Harrower. * The Emissary, mysterious silver-masked being who can withstand Solar Melee, alive. Enforces Nexus law. * ???, ghost. Animate, wannabe martial artist. Scarlet will flay him if he doesn't shape up next they meet. * Audo, ghost. Animate, and very flippant to deathknights. User of Five-Dragon Style. * ???, Audo's consort. Animate, also uses Five-Dragon Style. * Kersan, wizard of Rocky Meadow. Alive. Sorcerer and independent researcher. * Council of Five, the rulers of Rocky Meadow. Wizard, Healer, Burgher, Tinker and Bard. * ???, heroic war ghost, undead. Has a really horny helmet, serves the Walker in Darkness. * Garda, flame duck, alive. Summoned by Prophet, and not happy about that. * Reaper of the Unhallowed Crop. Moonshadow caste. Serves Faffles. Last seen taking Denandsor with undead army. * Frozen Creek. Servant of the First and Forsaken Lion, associated with Reaper of the Unhallowed Crop. * ???. Mysterious Quest-Giving Stranger from Varsi. Gave Stalker a quest to find the Amulet of Zor. * ???, Wyld Hunt leader, Water aspect. Alive. * ???, Wyld Hunt member, Air aspect. Alive. * ???, Wyld Hunt member, Fire aspect. Alive. * ???, Wyld Hunt member, Earth aspect. Alive. * ???, Wyld Hunt member, Wood aspect. Alive. * Isack, nomadic trader. Traded with the party suspiciously conveniently. Has a seemingly magic cart. * Infiltrator of Oblivion's Depths. Someone who should know about Warped Mirrors Shattered. Serves Mask of Winters as his chief covert operative. Last seen in Mask of Winters' castle, battling the party. * Forgotten Damnation in Perpetuity. A deathknight is Mask of Winters' service with a reputation for trouble. * ???, a cowardly deathknight. Last seen fleeing from the party in Juggernaught's laboratories. * Three Gray Feathers, a Lunar. Presumably alive. Has a vultureman civilization in the South-East. * Returning Coyote, First Age Twilight Solar. Last known to be fighting Mask of Winters near Thorns. * Apostle of the Wastes, Solar. Part of Coyote's circle. * Death Leopard, Solar. Part of Coyote's circle. * Thief of Light, Solar. Part of Coyote's circle. * Hawk of the Southern Skies, Lunar. Part of Coyote's circle. Possibly bonded to Coyote. * /Extended list of Lunars * Mai, an elderly shopkeeper, proprietor of the Sun and Moon. Alive. * Jum, a guard serving House Trasti. Dead. * Arlen, a watchman in Gem. Dead, a ghost previously bound to Apostle. * ???, a tribal chief in the South. Claim to fame: slew a Deathknight. * Seeker, a Solar from the Gem Deliberative. * Disciple, a Solar from the Gem Deliberative. * Nightingale, a Solar from the Gem Deliberative. * Emperor Corsic I. Ghost, extant. Last seen commanding a battle in south-eastern Underworld. * Emperor Taizu. Ghost, extant. Last seen commanding a battle in south-eastern Underworld. House Rules * Do not purchase Essence with experience or bonus points. I will improve your Essence rating for free when I see fit. * Craft is merged to be a single skill. * Training combos doesn't need an instructor and isn't slower if you haven't one. * There is an Abyssal mirror to Essence-Gathering Temper. It is the same, except it works on negative intimacies instead of positive intimacies. * Sorcery and Necromancy charms give one free spell of the appropriate level. * Lunars can learn Labyrinth Circle Necromancy. * Glory to the Most High exists. You need not pay the cost of the Essence bump, it is automatically accessible when using the charm. This should serve as a guideline for similar charms. * The Abyssal Temperance Flaw of Invulnerability is taken to mean the forbiddance of retreat and best attempts at killing offenders. You need not waste all your motes on the next attack. * Taint charms don't cost experience points to take as permanent. The downsides are disadvantage enough. * Deathlords are fixed in the following fashion: They are high-Essence Ghosts, following most normal rules for Ghosts. They have all the Arcanoi they qualify for. They likely know several Celestial, and possibly Terrestrial Martial Arts styles in full. They can learn Spirit charms, but possibly don't have too many of those. They can teach Solar charms they knew in life, but cannot use them. They know all levels of Necromancy, up to Void Circle, and most Necromantic spells. They know Terrestrial Circle Sorcery, and possibly Celestial Circle Sorcery, with a variety of spells, but cannot master the Solar Circle - but they can teach several Solar Circle spells. Their pact with the Neverborn means they respawn when destroyed, but there may be some means of their permanent destruction. The Loot Because nobody seems to be tracking that. * Unknown Orichalcum Circlet. Known properties: +4 to MDV pool. Attune 5. Inscription: Scorn of Lethe. Lost with Walker. * Red Jade Daiklave. * Orichalcum Articulated Plate. * Orichalcum Dire Lance. * Artifact workshop (+2 dice for artifacts, +4 dice for mundane objects). Where is your cart now? Does anyone even remember the loot when not looking here? You guys are so totally not a Dungeons and Dragons party. I expected you to raise money by selling these in Nexus. *Soulsteel grand daiklave. *Soulsteel lamellar. *Black jade noble warstrider with integrated Essence cannon *Low First Age Gunzosha powered armor *Jade goremaul *Warstrider-sized jade dire lance *Two unidentified level-5 hearthstones *Two unidentified hearthstones *A mostly broken mechanical horse *Dragon armour (air) *Exceptional Broadhead and Target arrows (+3 damage each) *A map of Thorns and environs *Resources 3 from scamming a merchant *Fivefold harmonic adapter - from Awesome Merchant *Perfect arrows of all kinds, +5 to hit each - from Awesome Merchant The Plot Marukan and thereabouts Stalker and Harrower meet outside of Thorns. They decide to get out of the shadowland. Stalker and Harrower meet Walker. He leads them back into Thorns to retrieve a contact of his, Ezekiel, who gives them a map to a tomb of some sort. Stalker, Harrower and Walker go to Celeren and drop Ezekiel off at the Guild. They meet Scarlet there, who joins up. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet go to the Marukan mountains to find the tomb. They fight their way into the excavation, protected by a Dragon-Blooded lieutenant from Lookshy. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet violate the tomb, get past puzzles and slay demons. They find it is the tomb of a Solar named the Returning Coyote. They rob the place, getting artifact-working tools, an orichalcum spear, armour and circlet. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet decide to take over Greyfalls. They move north to the river, and slay a hapless village to take their fishing boats. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet boat east. They are accosted by wolfmen pirates and take their ship. They boat slowly east, towards Nexus, where Walker wants to go for some reason. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet encounter the site of a naval battle which has turned a section of the river into a shadowland. Here they encounter and defeat the deathknight Warped Mirrors Shattered, who seems mutually acquainted with Stalker. Mirrors escapes by sinking. Nexus Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet reach Nexus. Walker goes to check his accounts with the Guild, while Harrower goes look for someone to exchange one of his grimcleavers for a shield. Harrower breaks into a house impulsively and Scarlet steals a small boy's glass marble. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet find that Walker vanished somewhere while they were escaping. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet go to Firewander in search of employment. They kill some gangers and earn the friendship of Tallest Oak, ostensibly an elderly Heroic Mortal, who promises to spread the word about Harrower's need for work. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet search for lodgings and bickered romantically. In the evening, Harrower and Tallest Oak armwrestle in an inn, and Tallest Oak Wins. Harrower goes without resplendent Abyssal sex for the day. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet are still in Nexus. They get information from Tallest Oak that a potential employer will be waiting for the conspicuous Harrower at the Filth market at dusk. They go there, and jointly mutilate a little girl thief. Thereafter, they go to a crackhouse where Harrower commits unique and well-thought-out atrocities on druggies and the others say that he's sad and lonely and don't give him hugs. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet fight with a practitioner of the Orgiastic Fugitive Style who happens across their crack house. Scarlet is very nearly mortally wounded, but the dragon-blood doesn't survive. Harrower meets with a mysterious man who hires him to eradicate the Fair Folk presence in the city. Stalker and Harrower go to the Wyld Zone in Firewander. After mucking about with illusions, they battle three Fair Folk on top of a pyramid, winning. One escapes, the rest dissipate on death. Harrower wills the zone into a shadowland-like-thing. Stalker fetches Scarlet, so that they can all rest in their natural habitat. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet rest and recuperate. The Thaumaturge fails to find a soulsteel shield, and Harrower doesn't want a Jade or Moonsilver one. Stalker hunts down the guy who hired them to kill Fair Folk and accidentally kills him. Scarlet them raises his body as a zombie, while he rises as a Hungry Ghost. Scarlet wrestles it, and everyone tries to change its mind about killing Stalker. They fail, so Stalker annihilates the ghost with her blade. A day later, Harrower and Scarlet go crash into a local Guildhouse, make demands to be employed - only to have several hundred Nexus militia come for them when they convince the bureaucrat that that they must be hired through force of arms. Stalker accompanies them, from rooftops. Harrower and Scarlet confront the Nexus militia, find out that they've been sentenced to death by the Council. A fight breaks out, in which Harrower and Scarlet slay a couple hundred Bronze Pioneers and a mysterious exalt of unknown nature leading them. Meanwhile, Stalker has a duel with a Dragon-Blooded commander arriving on the scene, and slays him, albeit not easily. The rest of the Nexus forces scatter. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet decide to leave the city. They try to cross over to the Underworld using their fake shadowland, but find that it's too fake. Instead, they go leave Nexus on foot. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet almost leave Nexus, only to be confronted by the Emissary. In the ensuing conflict, the Emissary doesn't show signs of being injured, but knocks out Stalker and Harrower. Scarlet triggers an Essence crisis as a last-ditch effort to win, accidentally creates a small shadowland which the characters use to escape into the Underworld. Resting in the wasteland that's the Underworld equivalent to Nexus, they bicker endlessly about where to go, and discover that they have mutations - Harrower's feet turning wolfish, Scarlet gaining claws on her hands, and Stalker growing a tail which she disguises. Underworld Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet argue endlessly, before deciding to go east to Walker's Realm to get back into Creation. Since they left their food in Nexus, they are starving, and toughen up as they go. They meet a strange ghost on the way, whom Scarlet tutors in proper martial arts for a moment, and learn there are minor towns on the way to the shadowland. Harrower makes haste, and arrives first, buying food from a merchant, while the other two get their nutrition by taking some other ghost's food. Scarlet prays to the Unconquered Sun for help, and is doomed. Stalker tries as well, only to get Resonance, and a special gift from the Neverborn - hatred for her sword. Harrower waits for the other two at the ferry to the other side of the river. Stalker and Scarlet arrive, to extort some more food from another ghost, who turns out to be very adversarial. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet have a battle with Audo the ghost martial artist and his consort. Wounded, both parties retreated, not wishing to die there. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet recriminated and came to the conclusion that their approach to things is wrong, since it keeps landing them in trouble, and resolved to be nicer. Meanwhile, Prophet arrived from the other side of the river by ferry, and saved the deathknights from starvation by virtue of having a cart laden with provisions with him. The foursome set out to Walker's Realm, using the polite approach to secure transportation across the river in their path at a ghost village. Prophet turned out to be quite knowledgeable on a number of subjects, and his connection to the Neverborn yielded information that the unknown Exalt Harrower and Scarlet fought in Nexus was a Sidereal. Stalker, Harrower, Scarlet and Prophet exit the Underworld by way of Walker's Realm, but don't stay because of its curse. They move northwest, towards Sijan, and encounter the tell-tales of a warzone. Eventually, they reach a town with allegedly enchanted walls besieged by dematerialized ghosts. As they negotiate entrance, a gigantic necrotechnical crab approaches, with a unit of zombies in tow. Harrower, Scarlet and Prophet engage the crab, and make use of their perfect defenses to avoid getting gruesomely killed. Scarlet doesn't, for want of them, and is slain. Harrower and Prophet slay the beast, and approach the town, where the mortals are finishing off the unsupported zombie horde. Stalker is there too. Rocky Meadow Stalker, Harrower and Prophet enter the town of Rocky Meadow as saviours and heroes. They are taken to meet the town wizard, Kersan, who turns out to be a mortal sorcerer. Kersan answers a bunch of questions relating to occult knowledge and proposes the three stay a while and listen, and learn sorcery among other things. In return, the deathknights would protect the town from threats, and deal with the ghosts sieging it. Prophet gave a funeral to Scarlet, who meanwhile emerged as a ghost in the Underworld. Stalker, Harrower and Prophet trained in preparation to deal with the war ghosts sieging the town. Stalker, Harrower and Prophet decide to properly inspect the crab. They find a dead body of a ghostblooded man inside, as well as a hearthstone. Prophet determines that the manse associated with the hearthstone is to the east, probably within Walker's Realm. Meanwhile, Harrower and Stalker move the crab piece-by-piece to a somewhat distant swamp over the course of a few days. Stalker (invisibly), Harrower and Prophet go meet the ghosts' leader, who they order to withdraw and spare the town. He asks their names, and they introduce themselves as Murder of Crows Set to Feast Upon the Majesty of Kings and Scarlet Scream That Ushers In Unending Silence. The ghost army then departs. Stalker, Harrower and Prophet return victoriously to the town, and announce that the ghost problem has been temporarily solved. The wizard teaches Prophet sorcery and goes about solving the problem permanently, by dint of moving the town's population south. Prophet summons a flame duck to serve as a lieutenant for a month. The council eventually agree to migrate the townspeople, and the party agree to escort them. Negotiations are crashed by Warped Mirrors Shattered and Grandfather to Slaughter, two deathknights, of whom the former escapes and the latter dies gruesomely at the hands of Harrower. The council survive, but are wounded, and Stalker notices that one of the people tending to them is greatly out of place. Stalker summons Prophet and Harrower, who deal with the Solar who identifies himself as Coyote. Harrower recalls that it was his tomb they ransacked a while back. Coyote questions the party for whereabouts of Walker, and getting no useful answers, departs. Harrower throws a fit over the Solar's sudden disappearance. Stalker decrees that she is going after her sister, and leaves. Just as Harrower's tantrum dies down, Maze arrives in town, and introduces himself to Prophet and Harrower, then joins the team. Prophet and Maze use reason and intimidation to convince the belligerent goddess of the town to let the people leave. After the townspeople pack up, they go southeast for almost a month, before they are surrounded in the night by wolfmen. Harrower, Prophet and Maze go deal with them, and bloodily engage three groups of the beastmen. Harrower, Prophet and Maze kill each and every one of the wolfmen and return to camp. Therein, they find that the villagers were attacked, but with the help of Prophet's lieutenant, the wolfmen were fended off with minimal casualties. Harrower and Maze (Prophet having grown silent of late) venture forth following a dragon line that Harrower located. They arrive at a reddish tower on a hill with a camp of wolfmen at its base. After dispatching the skeleton crew of the Lunar spawn, they investigate the tower, and find that it has the property of sheathing itself in fire when assaulted. The entrances being no match for daiklave-grade violence, Harrower gains entry and finds it a long-abandoned military outpost, with ten bodies in the hearthroom below. He attunes the minor fire manse while Maze examines the weaponry therein, finding strange bowlike devices, one of which he keeps. Harrower eventually attunes and repairs the damage inflicted when entering, and the duo return to the caravan to move on with the migration. Harrower, Maze and Prophet journey on, and encounter a huge herd of Yeddim. Remembering back his days as a Solar, Maze tames one of them. As they travel on, Prophet mentions the Empty City of Denandsor is to the southeast, and the other two decide it's a pretty good idea to go loot it. Eventually, the villagers decide they have made it far enough away from Walker's Realm, and Maze finds them an ideal spot for a city. Harrower gets promised a statue of the party, and Prophet gives the town wizard a set of blueprints for a nice settlement design. After parting ways with the mortals, Harrower and Maze ask questions of Prophet, who is very knowledgeable, and he answers them on topics of Abyssal exaltations, monstrances and the Empty City itself. Denandsor, the Empty City Harrower and Maze (and Prophet) go to Denandsor, fighting off unnatural fear. Harrower checks out some books from the library, and leaves because he doesn't have a social PD. Prophet studies First Age philosophy. Maze goes steal a warstrider, detours into obtaining a writ of access to the staging area, and gets the automaton police on his tail. Eventually, he gets in the compound, and uses a stolen goremaul to break into one of the hangars, revealing a black jade noble warstrider. Maze figures out how to make the warstrider go, procuring two hearthstones from nearby longdeads. After destroying the door to the bay, he is jumped by a few hundred of Denandsor's sentinels. Fortunately, he manages to escape, albeit sustaining severe wounds, taking with him the warstrider, a giant dire lance and a suit of gunzosha powered armour. Harrower and Maze wait for the latter to recuperate and speak of going to Thorns to retrieve Harrower's monstrance. Prophet does not exit the city in that time. Harrower and Maze rest up for a few days, then enter the city once more because Maze wants a suit of Dragon Armour. Harrower takes the warstrider. They have a brief fight with flying automatons, demolishing a block. While searching for artifacts, they find a room with a portal of some sort, out of which comes Stalker. Stalker goes invisible and stays the hell away from the other two, tracking them back to their camp. She waits until nightfall, steals back Soul Mirror, and proceeds to reintroduce herself to Harrower by throwing rocks at him. The teasing goes on until Maze wakes up and points out that Stalker is invisible, and not a hallucination. Plans and recent events are exchanged. Harrower gives Stalker a hug. Harrower, Maze and Stalker debate some more and leave the next day for Thorns. They decide to leave without Prophet, who's probably either fine or dead. One and a half day away from Denandsor, they encounter a force of reinforced zombies under the command of the deathknight Reaper of the Unhallowed Crop and the not-closer-identified Frozen Creek, servants of the First and Forsaken Lion. After some basic inquiries and removing Stalker from the negotiations, they strike a deal - information on the source of Harrower's warstrider in exchange for a thousand of the zombies. Both Maze and the Reaper sanctify the deal in the sight of the Neverborn. The army then leaves for Denandsor. Road to Thorns Harrower takes the zombies and warstrider off to Thorns, post haste. On the way he encounters a nice oasis, and is troubled in his sleep by a raksha who's got beef with him. The Fair Fellow escapes, wounded, following a brief duel. Stalker follows, much more slowly with the yeddim. Maze checks out Denandsor meanwhile, getting some neat loot, and finding out that the Reaper and friends have been sufficient to defeat its guardians. He exits on a mechanical horse, and meets up with Stalker. They decide to leave the yeddim where it is, and run the horse into near-disintegration to catch up with Harrower, who has reached the major river temporarily setting back their progress. Harrower learns how to walk on water, and Maze constructs a cage. Stalker makes smoke signals. Harrower wears the warstrider, puts zombies in the cage, and makes several trips to haul everyone to the other side, being Void Jesus. Harrower, Maze and Stalker talk about their plans. They decide that Harrower should go around the nearby city, Varsi, with the zombie army and the warstrider, while Stalker and Maze investigate. In Varsi, Stalker gets a quest from a cloaked stranger, to find an amulet, and goes off to find it in a nearby ruin after she gets three horses out of her employer first. On-site, she doesn't find the amulet, but finds a black blob which manages to fight her semi-effectively. Stalker wounds it, but lets it flee. Meanwhile, Maze gathers information, but fails to come up with anything worthwhile other than a map. The two go rejoin Harrower. Stalker and Maze return from Varsi. Just when they are about to continue on their way with Harrower, a tornado on the horizon shows up and deposits a Wyld Hunt, escorted by a unit of erymanthoi. The Terrestrials issue a death threat, and join war. In the ensuing battle, the zombie horde proves inferior to demonic apes, and the trio are forced to rout. In an exercise of stealth and daring, Maze attunes to the warstrider and aids the other two in the escape. While escaping, the team recriminates and plans for the future, eventually deciding to rest up and then go to Thorns a bit more stealthily. Stalker tries to attune to a chance-found demesne, but fails miserably, while Maze hides the warstrider and Harrower catches fish. Harrower, Stalker and Maze rest up and talk plans some more. Stalker attunes to a demesne, and painfully draws motes. Harrower, Stalker and Maze are ambushed in their cave by the Wyld Hunt, at dawn. A battle begins, only to be ground to a halt due to the Loom of Fate malfunctioning. Time is frozen until Sidereals can fix the problem. With the Loom fixed, the battle continues. Eventually, the Terrestrials start to lose, and retreat by Stormwind, leaving hastily-materialized Blood Apes to cover their retreat. Mid-battle, Scarlet Dust Fox shows up and tries to help, but gets overwhelmed by Erymanthoi. Harrower kills a lot of demons, and everyone but the Lunar feasts on their blood. Stalker, Harrower and Maze try to determine Fox's allegiance dysfunctionally. Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox leave on a Stormwind conjured by Fox. They travel to the inland sea west of the Grey River, and camp there. Here, they meet a nomadic trader calling himself Isack. He trades with the party, conveniently pulling out just what they needed from under the tarp on his cart, and taking a fair trade in exchange. Harrower gets a soulsteel shield, Maze gets perfect arrows and a soulsteel harmonic adapter and Stalker gets the map to a nearby manse. Everyone goes to find and explore the manse, which turns out to be a submerged and hidden place apparently intended to be some kind of dojo. After Stalker attunes, Harrower gives a recap of theirs plans so far. Fox explained some things concerning Stalker and Harrower's mutations. Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox train in the manse for two weeks, then go to Thorns via Stormwind Rider. On the way, they encounter very aggressive bees that get into their stormwind. They faff around with the bees for some time, then go off to Thorns when they manage to escape. Near Thorns, they notice a bunch of Solars (and a Lunar) battling Mask of Winters and an Abyssal. Maze takes some potshots, before deciding it's a better idea to skip the battle entirely. Stalker exits the stormwind and goes to Thorns on foot. Monstrance Raid Harrower, Maze and Fox decide to go to the outskirts of Thorns. Harrower hides in his warstrider which he hides in the terrain, while Fox and Maze sneak into town. Fox botches up and is captured by ghosts, who imprison her in the Shackle Maw Penitentiary. Stalker arrives, sneaks in and begins gathering information on her sister. Maze meets with Stalker to discuss Fox getting captured, and they proceed to blather their way through the prison staff, taking custody of Fox. The trio use an abandoned house for a brief resting place. Stalker, Maze and Fox argue for some time, then get some gear for infiltrating the Juggernaught with, and leave the city. They reunite with Harrower, and the whole team goes over to the behemoth. With a combination of charms and armours, they scale the treacherous path on his back with ease, arriving at Mask of Winters' stronghold. Harrower, Maze, Stalker and Fox gain violent entrance into Mask of Winters' castle, but the defending skeleton crew manages to get off a light show to notify their overlord of this fact. They smash through the halls and rooms, and encounter a cowardly deathknight and a stealthy deathknight, the latter being named Infiltrator. He injures all except Harrower, and leaves before he is overcome by the party's counterattacks. The cowardly deathknight flees without having to be engaged in combat. The team make their way down, into the bowels of Juggernaught, and find the room with all of Mask of Winters' monstrances. Harrower and Stalker found theirs, and six others. Harrower breaks his and it feels awesome. Maze feeds on Juggernaught, whom he determines to be still alive, and it feels awesome too. Stalker forbids to hurt her monstrance, and takes another one too. The raiders emerge smashingly from the fortress, to find that the battle outside is approaching fast. With everyone in tow, Fox summons a stormwind and takes off South. Meet the Lunar Harrower, Maze, Stalker and Fox flee south. Fox looks for a vulture-totem Lunar whose territory she remembers being around here, and eventually they find the camp of Three Gray Feathers. It is unusual in that it contains undead coexisting with beastmen, and a deathknight of the Silver Prince by the name of the Malevolent Apostle Dreaming Broken Dreams. They talk among themselves, seeing as Feathers is out. Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle faff around in the beastman camp. Fox analyzes the monstrances, determines their notable properties. Apostle casts Flesh-Sloughing Wave on the spare monstrance, and nothing happens. Maze is mostly absent, Harrower trains, Stalker objects to any harm being done to her monstrance. Three Gray Feathers arrives with the sound of broken glass, has breakfast with Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle. An agreement is made - the spare monstrance and information on Mask of Winters in exchange for instruction, hospitality and information on monstrances. Feathers then goes off with the monstrance for a week. People train. Feathers returns, tells that monstrances are devices for turning Solars into Abyssals and keeping their shards, and also that monstrances can be safely destroyed. Some realize that he probably told Lytek about the whole problem. Fox suggests that they stick with Feathers, and work with the Silver Pact for a while. There is general assent to this plan. Faffery Redux Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle go with Three Gray Feathers to his stronghold in the volcanic southern mountains, over the course of two months of trekking. It turns out to be a restored First Age facility. Apostle and Harrower spar, and after winning, Harrower vents resonance messily. There is talk about plans. Maze and Fox make use of the provided hot baths. Harrower makes use of the provided shadowland room. Stalker stealths around and shifts rubble. Harrower and Stalker excavate a bit of TGF's fortress. They find some lava, a treasury and a portal to Malfeas. They find these discoveries to be uninspiring. Then they talk to Fox, Maze and Apostle and decide to go scout-and-kill to Denandsor via Stormwind. Near Denandsor, Stalker pisses off Fox, so Fox boots her off the Stormwind. Stalker sustains minor injuries, and decides to kill Fox, but not before hauling her monstrance over to her manse on foot. The others argue and faff around on the outskirts of the city - notably unaffected by any aura of fear - trying to determine how to handle this new turn of events. Stalker continues trekking and eating peasants along the way. Meanwhile, Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle explore the ruined Denandsor, finding it has been effectively razed. They find many jade artifacts. The daimyo's palace they find looted, but discover a hidden passageway, which nets them a Soulbreaker Orb. Following that, they argue at length what to do with the damn thing, reaching no particular conclusion. Harrower tracks down where the victors went: into the Underworld, by means of mass sacrifice. Unfortunately, they closed the shadowland behind them. Eventually, they leave towards Feathers' castle on Fox's Stormwind Rider. Stalker still treks on, murdering random people. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle get back to the castle. Maze wants to learn Sorcery from Fox, so he has a fight with Harrower for the Ordeal of Humility. Stalker sheds some Resonance and makes a giant Blight. Stalker travels, fails to purchase yeddims with very scant resources. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle visit the doorway to Malfeas - after training for a tenday - and decide not to invade today. Then they went off on the Stormwind to find Stalker. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle track Stalker down pretty fast and somehow manage to convince her to give Fox another chance - during the next month, she is to prove herself, or Stalker will resume her killing intent. Then they return to Three Gray Feathers' stronghold, and are informed that the Gathering will be held in approximately four days. Apostle and Stalker train a bit, too. Lunar Gathering The Lunars arrive: Butterfly of the Night, with an entourage of mothmen and a young Lunar by the name of Willful Teasing Ferret, going by Stormwind. Silver Tyrant Unleashed, bringing two young Lunars - Ox-Mighty Troublemaker, and Beautiful Blinding Quicksilver - apparently by falling out of the sky. Feathers and the others greet them, then proceed to the feast. Stalker sits near the exit and refuses to socialize. Harrower amuses the audience and rolls Stamina + Performance with Ferret later that night. Apostle, Maze and Scarlet socialize with Quicksilver and Troublemaker, speaking about current matters, and learn that Tyrant - who is more concerned with food and alcohol than with anything else - knows how to punch mutations out of people. Maze and Scarlet retire for some private fun. Apostle approaches Butterfly with a cheesy pick-up line and scores. Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle wake mostly hangover-free after a night of revelry. Apostle had his brain picked by the Lunar Elder he slept with. By mid-afternoon, they attend a conference, where Harrower presents the party's history and relevant tangential information. Feathers is revealed to be somewhat infamous among Lunars. Scarlet gets the Tyrant to punch Stalker into normality later. Maze gives a presentation on the nature of Abyssals and their potential reversion to Solarity. Butterfly promises to help if he succeeds. Tyrant punches Stalker, ridding her of the terrible affliction of Tail. The party recriminates a little bit. Then everyone goes to eat (except Harrower, who doesn't). Apostle gets around to his sacrifice for the Labyrinth Circle Necromancy (narm, narm!), and gets Feathers to start teaching him. Scarlet meekly tries to find out Feathers' secret, but being politely rebuffed, gives up on that point. Butterfly, later, describes the mission for the Circle: infiltrate Gem, find out what a nascent Solar Deliberative is up to (if there really is one). Some Lunars have disappeared there, and the Silver Pact wants to know what exactly happened to them. Harrower states his desire to end Mask's unlife, and requests the Silver Pact's help in making that possible - the request is approved. Stalker walks back to her tent, only to find a written social attack, fake monstrance, and a message from Warped Mirrors Shattered. She flips out, and almost everyone shows up to discuss the matter, Scarlet is blamed. An investigation is arranged. It reveals that Mirrors arrived by necromantic teleportation with a fake monstrance, took Stalker's appearance, swapped the monstrances, then left. The others mostly plan. Tyrant brings back Stalker's monstrance, when asked reveals that Returning Coyote is one of the confirmed Solars of this new Deliberative. Butterfly later confirms and adds two more with enough description for Stalker to copy. Harrower takes care of most of the planning, and comes up with the perfect plan. Scarlet says farewell to Troublemaker and Quicksilver. Gem Harrower, Maze, Fox, Stalker and Apostle prepare and plan. Apostle gets asked a favour by Three Gray Feathers - fetch a live Terrestrial, when he can get the chance to do it stealthily. Travelling by Stormwind, they arrive at the base of the mountain that Gem sits on. Everyone bickers. Then everyone splits up. Stalker, and Maze and Scarlet independently come up with an establishment known as the Sun and Moon, in the Sun Market. Apostle kills a bunch of guards violently, and gets chased around, putting the whole city on alert. Harrower attracts attention to take it off everyone else. Scarlet, Maze and Stalker investigate the Sun and Moon. Meanwhile, Apostle slays an undertaker and uses the remains of one of his earlier victims to summon forth a ghost. Apostle grills the ghost for information, then visits a casino owner, whose guards he kills and gets some vague intelligence that there might be Anathema in the Sun Market. Along the way, he kills another fifty doomed watchmen. Harrower runs into some Solars, whom he duels to the death in the deep tunnels, and whose stuff he takes to sell up top. Stalker watches Scarlet and Maze. Maze has a brief spell where Willow takes over. The couple then investigate the shop, find that the owner is in cahoots with the Solars, but Maze convinces him to check with his superiors if some diplomacy with the Lawgivers can be had. Maze, Stalker, Scarlet, Harrower and Apostle randezvous outside the Sun and Moon. Stalker sneaks off to tip off the guard about the mass murderer's whereabouts, and they surround the area. Harrower intimidates the guards, since he's not got a warrant on his head yet, and simply walks through them. Scarlet turns into a cat, which is picked up by Maze, who turns invisible, and walks out of ground zero. Stalker turns into a guard. Apostle prepares for the fight of his life. Apostle gets killed in two minutes of mass combat. Stalker steals his gear, and trolls for free drinks. Harrower starts buying information on Anathema sightings, with dubious results. Scarlet studies to learn Infallible Messenger. Maze resolves to go talk to the Solars. Apostle reincarnates as 'Herrick', a mercenary slain near Paragon. He starts on the road towards Feathers' castle, having some misadventures. Maze and the rest of the team, save Stalker, meet with Solars. The Solars meet them in an opium den, disguised as mercenaries. The party is told to leave within two hours. Maze offers to be experimented upon, but is turned down, and told to go to Yu-Shan instead. Maze realizes that the disguised leader of the Solar delegation was Returning Coyote. Meanwhile, Stalker goes binge-drinking disguised as Scarlet and piles boy-toys on Fox's bed. After some more chatter, Fox casts Stormwind Rider and spirits the deathknights away. The Hunt Herrick continues with his misadventures, encountering a nomadic trader, a giant antlion, and a tribe of sandpeople, attempting to slay each, and finally being killed by the latter. Meanwhile, Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox evade capture, going in zig-zags and entering the Underworld to lose the Solar pursuit. Eventually, they make it to the Underworld version of Feathers' castle. Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox approach the castle and are let in by some soldiers. Therein, the gates and closed and Warped Mirrors Shattered reveals herself to fight the party, bringing the soldiers into the battle as killable scenery. The fight continues into the next week... ...with another Lunar, Foe Whitebeard, joining the fray even as Fox flees the huge mass of soldiers whittling at her health. Stalker and Warped Mirrors Shattered exchange words and Stalker finds that the Neverborn really are backing her sister. Eventually, Mirrors falls to Stalker, and bleeds out. Upon death, she turns to vapour, vowing return. When their commander falls, the mortal troops scatter in disarray. A message is sent to Feathers via Foe, who utilizes the shadowland room to cross over to Creation. Foe finds that Feathers has guests, three Solars by the names of Seeker, Disciple and Nightingale. They briefly interrogate him and Feathers, but both resist giving away the deathknights. Foe leaves Feathers' castle, and Maze goes in to check up on him, to find the Solars as well. The deathknights, following this, decide to chill in the Underworld for a while and search for Stalker's monstrance. The Solars eventually leave, and Foe gets Feathers to arrange for him a way to rejoin the Abyssals, via Infallible Messenger. Harrower prepares an ambush site in the Underworld. Foe eventually rejoins them, and gets tasked with carrying Mirrors' armour over to Feathers so he can call her ghost. This is foiled by the fact that Foe had attuned to it, breaking any mystic links. Foe goes back and brings back Mirrors' daiklave. This time, Feathers is more successful in the summoning, only to get himself and Foe seared with Oblivion as the Neverborn intercede on Mirrors' behalf. Everyone decides that going Nexuswards is probably a good idea. A lot of WORDS WORDS WORDS are exchanged, and people get some faffery out of their system. Maze says he'll buy Scarlet a kitten. Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Foe go back briefly to Feathers', pick up the warstride and provisions, then go back to the Underworld, and fly forth to Nexus. They encounter two warring ghost armies on the way, led by two Emperors, but in the end do not make any deals with them. Afterwards, they cross over into Creation at Shackelgrieve. Stalker visits her manse. Harrower stops by Varsi later, and buys some magical tools for Stalker, and gets the party attention from an impromptu Wyld Hunt, who follow them all the way to Nexus. Nexus 2: The Electric Bugaloo The Clusterfuck Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Foe argue plans, then Fox deposits them 2 minutes' run away from a gate to Nexus. Maze and Fox go invisible to infiltrate, while Stalker, Harrower and Foe stand around in challenge to the incoming Wyld Hunt. The Wyld Hunt conceal themselves in a copse of trees and begin sniping. Stalker, Foe and Harrower get him. Harrower proceeds to run away, and counterattacks to deter further attacks. Stalker goes invisible. Foe keeps getting hit, so Stalker saves him. This proves unwise, because she gets hit by Resonance, and a Resonance Eruption. The Neverborn use her as a sock puppet, and use her to slay Foe. Maze and Harrower try to prevent this, but fail. Maze gets connected with important people in Nexus, staying undercover with Fox. Harrower and Stalker meet up a day's travel from Nexus and discuss things.